


For Better or Worse

by show_me_the_universe



Category: Wicked - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/F, Heavy Angst, Really Heavy Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 17:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18609547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/show_me_the_universe/pseuds/show_me_the_universe
Summary: After the accident, things are looking up.(Inspired by Walk in the Park by Tiniestgay)





	For Better or Worse

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Walk in the Park](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18597433) by [Tiniestgay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiniestgay/pseuds/Tiniestgay). 



> I have no explanation for this except for that Tiniestgay's fic absolutely broke me and this is angst based off of it. 
> 
> I strongly recommend reading 'Walk in the Park' by Tiniestgay first if you haven't already
> 
> also this is completely unedited I just needed to get it out of my system

The first thing Elphaba noticed when she woke up was the faint ache in the back of her head. She blinked slowly, taking in her surroundings. Tangled wires, beeping machinery- she was in the hospital.

The memories came flooding back. A walk in the park, a happy afternoon, then a car, the blinding lights, Glinda lying motionless on the pavement-  _ where was Glinda? _

“Oh, Miss Thropp, you’re awake,” A cheery nurse said as she walked into the room. She was wearing scrubs with Care Bears on them, a pop of color in the otherwise dull room. Elphaba hated it. “How are you feeling?”

“Where’s Glinda?” Elphaba’s voice shook with fear. “The girl who was with me- where is she?”

“Your friend? She’s… she’s in the ICU.”

Elphaba’s head began to spin. She tried to move to get out of bed, but the nurse stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“You shouldn’t be moving. You’ve got a concussion and a sprained ankle.” Elphaba sat back down in her bed reluctantly, “Your friend took the worst of the injuries. She’s in the ICU for now but we just have her there to keep an eye on her, she’s doing fine. We should have her transitioned to the main hospital by tomorrow night.”

“Can I see her?” Elphaba looked at the table next to her bed, where all her possessions were. The tiny velvet box she had kept with her all day was on the table. She was planning on proposing to Glinda in the park, but after that stupid car… it was amazing how a day could change from so perfect to so horrible in a matter of seconds. “Can I please see her?”

The nurse hesitated. “You shouldn’t be leaving your room, Miss Thropp. And visiting hours are over...” She went and got a wheelchair from the corner of the room, “But I can see how much she means to you, so I’m willing to make an exception.”

Elphaba blinked away tears as the nurse helped her into the wheelchair, “Thank you, thank you so much.” Elphaba grabbed the tiny box from the table and opened it as the nurse wheeled her down the hallway.

“It’s a beautiful ring,” The nurse observed. 

“Thanks. I was… I was going to propose to her tonight, but clearly fate had other plans for us.”

A few minutes later they were in a small room in the ICU. Glinda was laying in a bed identical to the one in Elphaba’s room, except for the fact that she had far more machines beeping around her. Glinda was asleep, but she was breathing on her own and appeared to be in relatively good shape.

Elphaba reached out and took Glinda’s hand in her own. Almost instantly, her eyes fluttered open.

“Elphie…” Glinda smiled weakly, “Hi,”

Elphaba didn’t even make an effort to fight back the tears this time. “Glinda- oh thank Oz you’re alive!” She nearly fell out of her wheelchair trying to hug her girlfriend. “How-” Elphaba could barely speak; her body was shaking from how hard she was sobbing, “How are you?”

“Not too bad. Their main concern is that I lost a lot of blood. I think they said I cracked a few ribs too, so they want to keep an eye on that I guess… They’re going to try to get me into a regular room by tomorrow. I’m gonna be fine.”

“Thank goodness…” Elphaba sighed as she held Glinda’s hand, running her thumb across Glinda’s pale skin. “I want to give you a bit of extra incentive for you to recover…” She took out the little box that she’d kept with her all day. “I… I love you, Glinda. I love you more than you could ever wrap your head around. And… I mean I was planning on doing this tonight anyway, but I feel like the fact that I almost lost you just gives me all the more reason to do this. And I get it… the ICU isn’t really the ideal place for this, but-” She opened the box, revealing the diamond ring inside, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Glinda. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” Glinda’s face lit up, “Yes, of course I will!”

Elphaba smiled as she slid the ring onto Glinda’s finger, then leaned in to kiss her girlfriend- no, her  _ fiance _ . “Hurry up and get well soon my sweet, we’ve got a wedding to plan.”

* * *

Within a few days, Elphaba was discharged from the hospital, and Glinda was moved out of intensive care.

Days turned into weeks, and Glinda was returning to her old healthy self with every passing moment.

The very moment Glinda was finally cleared to leave the hospital, wedding preparations became the sole focus of their lives.

Summer turned into fall, and they finally decided on a midwinter wedding at the Ozdust ballroom, where their relationship had first begun all those years ago. All their friends would be invited, it was going to be perfect. They would take a honeymoon to the Emerald City and it would be the first step in their beautiful new life together.

But there was still a lot of planning to do before then.

“What color frosting should we have on the cake?” Elphaba asked, “I’m tempted to go with white, but that’s so  _ predictable _ .”

“We have to go with white, Elphie. Can you imagine-” Glinda coughed, a deep raspy cough that sounded incredibly uncomfortable, “Can you imagine having a wedding cake with anything but white frosting?” She coughed again.

“Are you okay? You’ve been coughing a lot lately.”

“Just a cold, love, nothing to worry about. So white frosting it is then?”

* * *

Elphaba could barely sleep. Glinda would not-  _ could not _ \- stop coughing. “Glinda, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just a cold, remember?”

“This is clearly worse than a cold,” She gently felt Glinda’s forehead. “You have a fever, you’re burning up.”

“No I’m not. Go back to sleep, we need to rest for tomorrow.”

With a reluctant sigh, Elphaba laid back down. 

She  _ did _ need to get some rest. 

After all, she was getting married in the morning.

* * *

Elphaba adjusted her tie one last time as she stood in the grand hall of the Ozdust. Any second now, Glinda would be walking down the aisle, and by the end of the day, she’d finally be able to call Glinda her wife.

This was easily the happiest day of her life.

The doors opened, and Elphaba braced herself to be stunned by Glinda’s beauty.

But instead...she was met with the concerned face of Pfannee, Glinda’s maid of honor.

“Elphaba, come here. It’s… it’s Glinda. She’s...”

Elphaba’s legs nearly gave out, but she somehow found herself practically sprinting to the dressing room where Glinda was getting ready.

Glinda was in a breathtakingly beautiful white dress… and she was doubled over in pain.

“Elphie… It” Glinda drew a shaky, labored breath as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, “It hurts to breathe.”

Glinda coughed again, and Elphaba swore she saw blood drip onto Glinda’s pristine white dress.

Elphaba turned to Pfannee, “Call 911.”

“Glinda…” Elphaba sighed. There was nothing to be said.

The next few hours were a blur.

Glinda’s wedding dress was swapped out for hospital gowns.

Elphaba tried to listen to the doctor, but her mind was spinning, she only picked up fragments.

Something about a cold… it had developed into pneumonia.

The coughing had gotten bad enough… she had coughed hard enough to crack a rib that hadn’t fully healed from the car accident…

A fragment of bone was dangerously close to puncturing her lung…

All that combined with the high fever and continued coughing…

Complications…

Not looking good…

Elphaba felt like she was about to pass out.

“Glinda…” Elphaba reached out to hold her hand. She was still conscious… for now.

“Elphie, I’m sorry. I should’ve done something before it got this bad, now I’ve gone and ruined our wedding.”

“Hey, don’t worry about the wedding anymore. Right now, we’re here.”

“Miss Thropp,” The doctor, a short bald man, stuck his head in the room, “Five minutes, then we need to take the patient to run some tests.”

“Five minutes… God, what do I say in five minutes?” Elphaba reached into the pocket of her suit. “My vow to you. I wrote this for- for the wedding.”

“Elphaba-” Glinda’s eyes once again filled with tears.

She looked at the clock: 12:30… if the wedding had gone as planned, they’d be saying their vows right about now. Might as well do them now anyway. “Glinda… What did I do to deserve you? My entire life, I was isolated and bitter and lonely and I never thought anyone could change that so fast. I never thought  _ you _ would be the one to change that so fast. But you’ve been nothing but kind to me, you’ve showed me how to love and how to be loved, and I couldn’t ever thank you enough for that. I love you. I love you more than words could ever begin to describe and…” Elphaba wiped the tears from her own eyes, “I’m so excited to spend the rest of our lives together.”

Elphaba froze as a nurse stood in the doorway with paperwork and medical equipment. Glinda coughed again, sending the heart monitor into a beeping frenzy. The nurse muttered something, she looked nervous. She checked the monitor and immediately called in the doctor.

The room was full of panic. Elphaba didn’t pick up on exactly what was happening, but evidently it was bad.

Within seconds, a team of nurses began to push Glinda’s bed out of the room and down the hall. Elphaba followed, never letting go of Glinda’s hand.

Glinda’s breathing was shallow and her face was growing paler by the second. “Please, Glinda, just hold out, my sweet.”

Glinda didn’t respond, Elphaba wasn’t even sure if she was awake.

“I’ll always be here for you, love. For better, for worse.”

Elphaba nearly ran into an elderly man in a wheelchair as she followed the group down the hallway.

“For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” She held Glinda’s hand a little bit tighter, “To love and to cherish…”

The doctors and nurses pushed the bed through a set of double doors. 

“No visitors beyond this point,” a nurse said, holding Elphaba back.

“Until death do us part…” Elphaba whispered to the doors that Glinda had just disappeared behind.

* * *

Elphaba had fallen asleep in the waiting room, still in her wedding suit.

It was some ungodly hour in the morning when she was woken up by Crope and Tibbet.

“She’s...she’s gone…”

Elphaba cried until dawn and kept crying well into the day.

She wasn’t sure she would ever stop crying.

* * *

She only really owned one suit.

So naturally, the suit she wore to the wedding was the same one she wore to the funeral.

She didn’t talk to anyone that day beyond a ‘thank you’ and a hug when anyone offered her sympathy.

She didn’t go to the visitation. She couldn’t bring herself to see Glinda, in her still, lifeless beauty. She wasn’t strong enough.

She sat in the back row at the service. She didn’t have a eulogy prepared. There were no words to describe how much Glinda meant to her and how empty she was without her.

She didn’t go to the burial. It was too cold, there were too many people. And going to the burial would mean saying goodbye. She wasn’t ready.

* * *

A year passed. This was supposed to be their first wedding anniversary. They were supposed to have settled down and be living a happy, beautiful life together… they were supposed to have a miraculous story of rebuilding their lives after the car accident, but instead, all Elphaba had to share was a tragedy.

“Hello, love.” Elphaba sat in the snow, not caring about the cold. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

She felt something change in the wind… like a distant voice calling her name.

“Glinda?”

The wind died down, and Elphaba was brought back to reality.

“I’m losing my mind… hearing things in the wind and talking to stone.”

She wasn’t crying anymore. The loss of Glinda had gone from being a stinging, crying wound to a deep, longing ache within her mind, body, and soul.

She wasn’t sure if she’d ever recover from the pain. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever move on.

“I love you, Glinda.” She whispered to the ground, the earth, the sky,  _ everywhere. _ “Happy anniversary.”

**Author's Note:**

> melissa you are legally not allowed to be mad at me for this, you brought this on yourself


End file.
